Senate Health Education, Labor & Pensions Committee Holds Hearing on CMS and ONC’s Proposed Interoperability Rules

The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) committee held a series of hearings titled,  “Implementing the 21st Century Cures Act: Making Health Information Available to Patients and Providers.” The hearings were held in response to the proposed interoperability rules released in February 2019 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONC) to determine how Congress should proceed moving forward in the rulemaking process to implement the 21st Century Cures Act. Throughout both hearings Senators expressed concern about information blocking, the need for API standards, potential physician burden associated with increased EHR use, and the safety of patient data as patients become owners of their health information.   
 
The first hearing, held on March 26, questioned the following witnesses: Ben Moscovitch, the health IT project director at The Pew Charitable Trusts, Lucia Savage, the chief privacy and regulatory officer at Omada Health, Inc., Dr. Christopher Rhem, the chief medical informatics officer at Lifepoint Health, and Mary Grealy, the president at the Healthcare Leadership Council.
 
View the full March 26 hearing and background materials here.
 
The second hearing, held on May 7, questioned two witnesses, Dr. Don Rucker, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at ONC, and Dr. Kate Goodrich, the Director CMS Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS.
 
View the full May 7 hearing and background materials here.